Learning from Many Methods

From the Rohrig Tarot, the Hierophant:

Usually most Hierophant cards make me inwardly cringe, but here there is no pope ornately dressed with people kneeling at his feet.  The stars and light above his head make me see him as more of a shaman or mystic than a priest or pope.  He's willing to teach all who want to learn, but he refuses to proselytize.  This guide looks like a deep thinker, but at the same time I see a smile lurking in those eyes.    With that bit of mischievousness, part of his teaching style may be that of the wise fool.  There will be no pew-sitting with him as a mentor; it's all about opening to the experience itself while keeping an open mind.

     From the Masters Tarot comes the card "Sorrow:"

The sorrow here that Montano speaks of is that of suffering, the kind that we want to ignore by distracting ourselves or putting our heads in the sand.  But he encourages us to objectively observe it instead, to suffer consciously (not in a "poor pitiful me" way), allowing it to teach us and transform us.  He writes, "For when the intensity of pain is matched by the intensity of watching, we are thrown to our center, and there no pain can reach because we are no longer identified with it."